Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/983981
www.postmagazine.com 13 POST MAY 2018 POST PICKS 2018 as the product manager. Particle Illusion, which was previewed as a tech demo at the company's NAB booth, will be part of Continuum 12 and the Continuum Particle Unit to be released later this year. "We have listened to our customer base and have taken on multiple initiatives that will greatly enhance the workflow for editors, motion graphics and effects artists," says Boris Yamnitsky, Boris FX founder & president. One of the "high- ly-requested" features for the company was to bring back Particle Illusion. "We have responded by reengineering and designing this application from the ground up." BLACKMAGIC DESIGN CONVERTERS Blackmagic Design (www.blackmagic design.com) introduced a number of low-cost converters at the NAB Show. The Blackmagic Mini Converter UpDownCross HD unit lets customers convert any SD or HD video format to any other SD or HD video format via SDI and HDMI input and output connections. Priced at $155, the unit also gives users automatic scaling of computer resolutions to standard broad- cast formats. The Blackmagic Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI is a pocket size, broadcast quality video converter that simultaneously converts SDI to HDMI and HDMI to SDI in all SD and HD formats up to 1080p60. Blackmagic Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI is priced at $65. Customers can use it to convert NTSC format video from SDI to HDMI in one direction, while simultaneously convert- ing 1080p60 video from HDMI to SDI in the other direction. The professional 3G-SDI connections allow for work with all SD and HD equipment and formats up to 1080p60, including Level A and B devices. The unit can be powered via micro USB from a laptop computer, big screen television or mobile phone battery back. It can also be powered using an optional DC plug pack, which supports 110 to 240V AC and comes with four dif- ferent international AC socket adapters so customers can plug them into outlets anywhere in the world. Finally, the Blackmagic Mini Converter Optical Fiber 12G is a new bi-directional SDI to optical fiber converter that lets users extend SDI connections up to 10 miles away. Priced at $155, the unit extends SDI connections over massive distances by converting SDI to optical fiber and optical fiber to SDI in both directions at the same time. Using the Blackmagic Mini Converter Optical Fiber 12G is an affordable way to increase camera coverage at live events because it lets broadcasters place cameras up to 10 miles away from their switchers, routers and decks using low-cost optical fiber cable. Mini Converter Optical Fiber 12G includes a universal power supply with four international socket adapters. It also features a screw lock connector that prevents the power cord from being accidentally disconnected. SONNET TECHNOLOGIES' EGFX BREAKAWAY BOX 650 Sonnet Technologies (www.sonnettech. com) launched its new eGFX Breakaway Box 650 at NAB. The 650 is the latest Thunderbolt 3 to PCI Express (PCIe) eGPU expansion chassis for professional graphics and gaming applications and is designed and qualified specifically for large, power-hungry video graphics processing unit (GPU) cards, includ- ing the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and overclocked Nvidia GeForce GTX 10 series-based cards. The unit is equipped with a 650-watt power supply, which provides ample power for GPU cards with high transient peak power requirements. The eGFX Breakaway Box 650 pro- vides a single slot for connecting any size Thunderbolt-compatible GPU card, and features enough room for many high-per- formance water-cooled cards, making it well suited for pros who need to run bandwidth-intensive graphics applica- tions on their eGFX-compatible notebook, all-in-one, or other small-form-factor computers. The unit is equipped with a 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 port that en- ables data transfers up to 2750MB/s, and supports all Thunderbolt-compatible GPU cards, including the AMD Radeon R9, RX, RX Vega and Pro WX models; and Nvidia GeForce GTX 9 and 10 series, Titan X and Xp, V, and Quadro models. In addition, the Breakaway Box 650 includes two eight-pin auxiliary power connectors and provides 87 watts of upstream power (Power Delivery), useful for powering and charging a connect- ed notebook computer that supports Thunderbolt 3 charging. AJA KONA HDMI AND KONA 1 CARD AJA Video Systems (www.aja.com) un- veiled two new Kona cards at NAB, the Kona HDMI, a PCIe card for multi-channel HD and single-channel 4K HDMI capture for live production, streaming, gaming, VR and post production, and Kona 1, a PCIe card for single-channel HD/SD 3G-SDI capture/playback.